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Rays acquire Emilio Pagan in three-team trade

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The Rays acquired Emilio Pagan from the Athletics in a three-team trade on Friday.

The Tampa Bay Rays, Oakland Athletics, and Texas Rangers have completed a three-team trade that will bring right-handed reliever Emilio Pagan to St. Petersburg from Oakland. The Rays will also receive the Athletics’ Competitive Balance Round A selection in next year’s draft (currently slotted in at number 38 overall) and a Minor League right-hander, Rollie Lacy, from Texas. In return, Tampa Bay will send minor league southpaws Brock Burke and Kyle Bird and Minor League right-hander Yoel Espinal to the Rangers.

Pagan, 27, will join his third organization in three years. He spent just one season in Oakland after being acquired from the Mariners in the 2017-18 offseason. Though he’s moved journeyed a fair bit, Pagan has generally had useful big league results, notching a 3.85 ERA with 9.5 K/9 and 2.2 BB/9 across 112-1/3 innings as a Major Leaguer.

Pagan pitched in 55 games for Oakland, finishing the 2018 campaign with a 4.35 ERA/4.92 FIP to pair with a 24.1 K% and 7.3 BB% across 62 innings pitched.

The reliever has been tremendous against right-handed batters, holding them to a .192 BA/.237 OBP/.336 SLG/.573 OPS line while posting a 6.23% K/BB in his big league career. Even though Pagan shows the ability to miss plenty of bats, his kryptonite has been left-handed hitters, which have lit him up. He’s also an extreme fly-ball pitcher that’s yielded a 1.6 HR/9 at the Major League level.

Even so, JT Morgan (DRaysBay) calls Pagan an apt replacement for Sergio Romo:

Pagan makes sense as a replacement for Sergio Romo. He shouldn’t be getting the ninth inning role, but with teams like the New York Yankees, Boston Red Sox, Houston Astros, and Los Angeles Angels being primarily stacked with right handed batters at the top of their lineups being an opener could make some sense for the Rays against the teams they are most likely looking to compete with.

Pagan is able to pitch in multiple innings which was likely appealing to the Rays, who lean on multi-inning relievers as part of their opener strategy.

His repertoire, according to Brooks Baseball:

Emilio Pagan has thrown 1,901 pitches that have been tracked by the PITCHf/x system between 2016 and 2018, including pitches thrown in the MLB Regular Season, The World Baseball Classic, Spring Training and Fall/Winter Ball. In 2018, he has relied primarily on his Fourseam Fastball (95mph) and Slider (86mph). He also rarely throws a Change (88mph) and Sinker (94mph).

His fourseam fastball generates a high number of swings & misses compared to other pitchers’ fourseamers, has less armside movement than typical, results in somewhat more flyballs compared to other pitchers’ fourseamers, has slightly above average velo and has some added backspin. His slider is a prototypical pitch with few remarkable qualities. His change generates an extremely high number of swings & misses compared to other pitchers’ changeups, is much firmer than usual, results in more flyballs compared to other pitchers’ changeups and has a lot of backspin. His sinker (take this with a grain of salt because he’s only thrown 12 of them in 2018) is basically never swung at and missed compared to other pitchers’ sinkers, is an extreme flyball pitch compared to other pitchers’ sinkers, has well above average velo, has less armside run than typical and has little sinking action compared to a true sinker.

Mark Polishuk (MLB Trade Rumors) wrote about Lacy, saying:

The 23-year-old Lacy will join the Tampa Bay organization after spending only a brief time with the Rangers. Texas acquired Lacy in the July trade that sent Cole Hamels to the Cubs, though his results with the Rangers dropped off a bit from the numbers he posted in the Cubs’ minor league system. Some of that surely coincides with a move from Class-A to Class-A Advanced, and it’s worth noting that Lacy only totaled 28 1/3 innings in the Rangers’ system before the season ended, so it’s also a small sample of data. On the season as a whole, the right-hander worked to a 2.97 ERA with 10.0 K/9, 3.1 BB/9 and a ground-ball rate of nearly 60 percent through 109 innings between those two levels this season.

The deal cleared space on the 40-man roster for Charlie Morton, who was acquired at the 2018 MLB Winter Meetings on December 12.

On Thursday, the Rays came to terms on a Minor League deal for left-hander Jairo Labourt.

Lambourt, 24, came over to Toronto as part of the 2015 David Price trade with the Tigers. He pitched in the MLB Future’s Game in 2017 and made his Major League debut later that season. He posted a 4.76 ERA and an 11/9 K/BB across 5-2/3 innings of work last season with the White Sox’s affiliate. He will need to improve his shaky control if he wants to make it back to the majors with the Rays.

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Rays officially terminate stadium negotiation window

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The 86 acre Tropicana Field site, home of the Tampa Bay Rays … at least until 2027.

The Tampa Bay Rays formally closed the three-year negotiating window that permitted the team to search both Pinellas and Hillsborough and counties for a new stadium site.

The team sent a two-sentence letter, drafted by Senior Vice President of Administration John P. Higgins, to St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Kriseman which was similar to the announcement made by Rays principal owner Stu Sternberg last week at Major League Baseball’s winter meetings in Las Vegas. You can read the text of the letter below.

Dear Mayor Kriseman:

This letter shall serve as the “Decision Notice” [as that term is defined in that certain Memorandum of Understanding between Tampa Bay Rays Baseball Ltd. (the “Rays”) and that City of St. Petersburg (the “City”) dated January 15, 2016 (the “MOU”)]. Please be advised that, as required by Section 9.B. of the MOU, the Rays hereby notify the City that the Rays will not attempt to negotiate the “New Agreements” (as that term is defined in the MOU) or prepare a “Termination Agreement” (as that term is defined in the MOU).

If you have any questions, please let me know.

Very truly yours,

John P. Higgins

The team — which stands to net 50% of the development rights at the Tropicana Field site — remains silent on its future, although there is far more money available for the Rays if they choose to renegotiate in St. Petersburg. In fact, when asked by Noah Pransky (WTSP) if Sternberg would sign away the developments rights at the Trop in July, the answer was pretty clear: “no.”

At the moment, St. Petersburg can contribute $100-million+ in county bed taxes, $75-million+ in county infrastructure funds, and $40-million+ in general revenue funds.

St. Petersburg City Council Chair Charlie Gerdes said it’s time to make sure the team stays here for the long haul.

I don’t have a sense of relief, said Gerdes, who said he’d rather see the team find a long-term home in Pinellas County, but would also rather the team stay in the Tampa Bay area than leave altogether. It’s not time to be relieved, it’s time to make sure they stay here for a long time.

I want them to find a place where they can keep ‘TB’ on their hats for a long time.

The Rays decision to pull out of the Hillsborough County stadium proposal not only marks the second time the team hasn’t seen a proposal through in a decade but has also stoked local sportswriters dire warnings that if you don’t build it, the team will leave. That, however, is patently false in most cases, yet many people continue to believe it. That narrative has been driven home by those sportswriters, not the team which up to now has been very clear that it remains committed to finding a new stadium in the Tampa Bay area.

Neil de Mause (Field of Schemes) attempted to quell the fears of Rays fans, saying:

Look, Tampa Bay is, it has now been well established, a middling MLB market, but that’s still better than most non-MLB markets, since they are non-MLB markets precisely because they can’t even manage to be middling. All things being equal, would Stuart Sternberg make as much money running a team in Montreal as in Tampa Bay? Maybe! Would he make more? Probably not, all things being equal. Could all things not be equal, like if Montreal throws the kind of money at Sternberg that Tampa Bay is so far refusing to? Conceivably, but that didn’t go so well the last time, and the current Montreal mayor sounds at least somewhat skittish about promising piles of cash — saying “We need to evaluate what kind of participation, how we will collaborate, but so far, so good” and “if it comes to asking Montrealers for money, for example to build a stadium, yes, I will ask Montrealers” — so probably won’t to the degree that this is likely to turn into an international bidding war.

It is absolutely important to remember at all times that sports leagues have a monopoly on franchises, and can use that as leverage — but it’s also important to remember that there are only so many cities with the population (and TV eyeballs) to enable a pro sports team to make fistfuls of money, and cities can use that as leverage, too. Romano is right about one thing: This is a business negotiation, and team owners are just trying to maximize their profits (plus maybe their egos), and will use any advantage they can to do so; but there’s nothing stopping elected officials from doing the same. Right now, the Rays and Tampa/St. Pete are still in the staring-each-other-down phase of negotiations, so there are likely at least a few more summers of baseball left before anybody starts storming off and slamming doors.

All of which is to say: Everybody take a deep breath, okay? I know it’s bad for clicks, but it’s good for making sensible policy decisions, and journalism is still about trying to inform people so they can make the world a better place — or at least that’s what the internet tells me.

The Rays previously said they had no interest in getting into the real estate business, yet they commissioned a study on real estate opportunities in Ybor City. It could be assumed that Sternberg could be coming around to the idea of property development since the study also identified downtown St. Petersburg and Mid-Pinellas/Carillon as two of Tampa Bay’s largest areas of growth.

Noteworthiness

— Per Marc Topkin (Tampa Bay Times), the two-year, $30-million deal with Charlie Morton expected to be announced later this week. The Rays still have to make room on the 40-man roster.

In other news, the race is still on for catcher J.T. Realmuto. The Rays, Astros, Padres, and Dodgers are said to be in on the catcher.

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Rays trade Jake Bauers to Cleveland for INF Yandy Diaz

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Meet the Rays newest utility player, Yandy Diaz, who comes over from Cleveland in a three-way trade involving Jake Bauers.

In the waning hours of the 2018 Winter Meetings, the Tampa Bay Rays made another big trade, sending 1B Jake Bauers to Cleveland to for INF Yandy Diaz and a minor-league pitcher, RHP Cole Sulser, as part of a three-team deal also involving Seattle.

Long considered a top prospect for Tampa Bay, Bauers seemed to be a key part of the Rays’ core of young players. Yet his late-season struggles across August and September changed the calculus a bit.

Senior VP of Baseball Operations Chaim Bloom told Marc Topkin (Tampa Bay Times) they did not sour or give up in any way on Bauers, but felt Diaz — with the versatility to play first or third — was a better fit.

Obviously, giving up Jake in this deal is not easy to do, Bloom said. We love Jake and feel really strongly about him, too. That was just the price we needed to pay to get Yandy. We thought, all things considered, it was the right thing for us to do. It’s good for our roster going forward.

According to Bloom, the trade was about getting a player the Rays like … one who gives manager Kevin Cash additional roster flexibility.

I think it’s premature to say we know exactly where he’s going to play, Bloom said. We’ll have to see how things unfold from here. But the versatility he has does give us more options and more possible paths for our roster to go.

Diaz hits right-handed, has good contact skills and a developing power profile.

Diaz posted .797 OPS figures at both the Triple-A (426 plate appearances) and MLB (120 plate appearances) levels last season. In 299 overall big league plate appearances, Diaz slashed .283 BA/.361 OBP/.366 SLG and put up a 97 wRC+, with a  10.7% walk rate and 18.1% strikeout rate.

In addition to having huge biceps, Diaz hit the baseball hard more consistently than almost anyone, according to Statcast™.

Of 504 players over the last two seasons, Diaz ranks 19th with a 47.6% hard-hit rate, and 22nd in exit velocity at 92.1 mph. It bears mentioning, three of the top 26 players have been acquired by Tampa Bay in the last six months:

Diaz (19th), 47.6%
Tommy Pham (23rd), 46.6%
Mike Zunino (26th), 45.9%

However, Diaz hit just one home run in 265 at-bats and boasts just a .087 ISO. The question begs, why is that?

As it stands, Diaz has the eighth-lowest launch angle (4.4 degrees), resulting in the 25th-highest ground-ball rate. Bloom said the team is hopeful they can get him to elevate the ball.

We like him as is, Bloom said, but any time you get a guy who hits the ball really hard, there’s always an additional upside, to the extent they can drive the ball a little bit. Even if he doesn’t do that, we think he’s a very polished hitter.

As JT Morgan (DRaysBay) wrote, the answer might not be to drastically alter Diaz’s launch angle.

On average, Diaz was tied with Wilson Ramos in launch angle. And though they have posted very similar numbers, Ramos has a couple mph of exit velocity on balls in the air, whereas Diaz’s launch angle is just under Duffy’s 4.6.

… Diaz doesn’t need to go all out on launch angle. It’s more likely that he needs to get more line drives overall to improve his power output. He looks the part of a guy who should hit for quite a bit of power and the exit velocity readings mostly agree.

Sulser, 28, has yet to reach the big leagues, although he could factor into a deep Rays relief corps after throwing 105 innings of 3.51 ERA ball with 12.3 K/9 and 3.6 BB/9 at Triple-A over the past three seasons.

Noteworthiness

— No, thank you, Jake, it was a pleasure watching you become Rake Bauers!

— Per Topkin, Bloom said they “are still open to getting another hitter” and this isn’t the end of their offseason plans.

— I’d reckon it’s been a pretty, uhh … confusing 24 hours for the Rays front office.

— In the words of Danny Russell (DRaysBay), Charlie Frago at the Tampa Bay Times is reporting the stadium deal died in November of this year after key business leader Ron Christaldi attempted to broker a deal to finance the stadium with little transparency.

Then again…

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Rays agree to a two-year, $30-million deal with Charlie Morton

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The Rays have inked a two-year, $30-million deal with right-hander Charlie Morton pending a physical.

The Tampa Bay Rays came to an agreement on a two-year, $30-million deal with right-hander Charlie Morton, pending a physical. The deal includes an option for up to $15-million in 2021 and assignment bonuses if Morton is traded, valued at $1-million in 2019 and $500-thousand in 2020.

The 35-year-old Morton really blossomed since coming to the Astros prior to the 2017 season. His new pitching philosophy allowed him to collect more strikeouts while also increase his velocity — his fastball velocity averaged 96 mph last season, but a key to his success with the Astros was the increased use of his curveball. The right-hander boasted a 10.4 K/9, and a 3.19 K/BB rate across 313-2/3 innings in an Astros uniform. He went 14-7 with a 3.62 ERA in 2017 and 15-3 with a 3.13 ERA last season, posting career bests in wins, ERA, WHIP (1.16), and punchouts (201). The right-hander performed to a 6.3 fWAR over the last two seasons, as compared to a 7.8 fWAR over his previous nine seasons with the Braves, Pirates, and Phillies.

Like Nathan Eovaldi before him, Morton has a reputation for being a thoughtful pitcher who is a steadying, veteran presence in the clubhouse.

Houston didn’t issue a $17.9-million qualifying offer to Morton after the 2018 season but was said to be interested in bringing him back. He previously had given the impression that he could retire soon in order to spend time with his family in Delaware.

Morton joins American League Cy Young Award winner Blake Snell and Tyler Glasnow as the three conventional hurlers in a rotation likely to include two opener spots(with Yonny Chirinos, Ryan Yarbrough, Jalen Beeks, and Wilmer Font working behind them). Adding a veteran arm like Morton will cover innings and provide some extra cushion for the relief corps as it prepares for another significant workload. As Marc Topkin (Tampa Bay Times) noted, Brent Honeywell and Jose De Leon are expected to return from Tommy John surgery in June.

Rays Senior VP of Baseball Operations, Erik Neander, wouldn’t address the Morton deal since it is not official, pending physical, although he did tell Topkin they are “still active” and the “doors are still open” for adding a hitter via trade or free agency — they still hope to do something.

Cruz watch 2018

The Rays are still in on Nelson Cruz, although Senior VP of Baseball Operations Chaim Bloom told Topkin other options remained for a right-handed power bat.

We’ve advanced the ball a little bit on some fronts, Bloom said. Obviously this, more than any other time, at the winter meetings you have a lot of different possibilities. So when there are that many possibilities it’s hard to know exactly which one, if any, is going to get over the finish line. Some conversations progressed.

Cruz’s market took a potentially interesting twist with a report out of the Dominican Republic (where he lives), that said he’d narrowed his options to Tampa Bay and Minnesota. Per to Topkin, that would be a good sign for the Rays, as the Astros would probably be their toughest competition among the four reported suitors, the White Sox the other.

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Sternberg: plan to build a stadium in Ybor City is no longer viable; Rays WM update

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…And, nope.

With just 20 days left in the memorandum of understanding (MOU) window which allowed the Tampa Bay Rays to search regionally for a new stadium site, principal owner Stuart Sternberg told the media Tuesday the plan to build a stadium in Ybor City is no longer viable. The team remains committed to looking again for a new home in Tampa Bay.

During a press conference from the Winter Meetings in Las Vegas, Sternberg said the lack of details and progress for the proposed $892-million stadium in Ybor City was not going to work and there was no point in asking for an extension on the December 31 MOU deadline. Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred earlier sent a letter to Hillsborough County officials, saying the framework of the deal was lacking too many details.

While the momentum and progress are real, we are not close at all to a workable framework, Sternberg said. We’ve had a long time. Three years is a long time. … While I am wildly disappointed by the result, I’m not discouraged.

Sternberg said they are are a “pretty resourceful” and “pretty determined” group that remains optimistic and firmly committed to helping the team remain in Tampa Bay for decades and generations to come … that the team has no plans to try to leave the area before the end of 2027 use agreement at the Trop.

Team president Brian Auld indicated that while there is no specific next step or site in mind,  “Everything is back on the table.”

Everything is back on the table, Auld said. As we’ve been at this for 10 years now we continue to take the same approach as we have over that time. … We are a resourceful group, we’ll get as creative as we possibly can, we’ll work with all the partners that we can to make this thing a reality. While today is certainly disappointing and represents a bit of a setback we have great partners on both side of the bay that have shown a willingness and eagerness to get this resolved. And both sides have a lot to gain from getting this resolved regardless where the ultimate location is.

St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Kriseman — by way of the Baseball Forever campaign — previously pitched a stadium proposal in April of 2017, where a stadium would be constructed on the eastern side of the Tropicana Field site.

On Tuesday, the mayor also left open the door to working with the team, saying in a statement he stands “ready if asked, to continue the conversation related to the organization’s future in St. Pete.”


As of now, there are four feasible and/or rumored sites in Pinellas: Tropicana Field, Derby Lane, Al Lang Stadium, and Albert Whitted Airport. However, only one site has been discussed as of now: the Trop. It should also be noted that Derby Lane is privately held property and on county land, not within the St. Petersburg city limits.

Should the Rays decide to build at Tropicana Field site, they stand to make 50% of the redevelopment rights of the site, which could make them far more profitable than in Tampa.

For what it’s worth, Marc Topkin (Tampa Bay Times) thinks a facility could work splendidly at the Al Lang Stadium site.

This story is still breaking, and we will have more reactions and hot-takes as it unfolds.

Noteworthiness

— Rays Senior Vice President of Baseball Operations Bloom said Tuesday there were more talks of trades, that “we advanced the ball a little bit on some fronts.” However, no specifics were given. As I wrote yesterday, Nelson Cruz and Charlie Morton are among those in play, although nothing is imminent.

The interest (in the Rays) is genuine, Dixon said, planning to talk again with the Rays soon. We’re kind of in the middle of trying to get some concrete numbers and finish the dialogue with the teams. The Rays have been in there the entire time.

Both Cruz and his agent, Bryce Dixon, said the matchup would be “a perfect fit,” but three to four other teams (likely the Twins, White Sox, and Astros) also are interested, and because of it, the Rays are continuing to explore other options.

Other trade options are said to include Jose Martinez (Cardinals) and Carlos Santana (Mariners), and INF Yandy Diaz (Cleveland), who hasn’t much big league experience.

As for Morton, 35, the late bloomer spent the last two seasons in Houston, going 29-10 with a 3.36 ERA. Last season he earned $7-million (plus incentives) and threw 171-2/3 innings — his most since 2011. Despite his age, Morton has not shown any immediate signs of physical regression.

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